by Zoe York
Not any more. That was one of the biggest problems between Jess and Brent, and Evan had resisted his role in fixing their twosome. Because they all were so much better as a threesome, the truth breathed in his ear.
No. He couldn’t have that riding on his shoulders.
He carried the weight of being the CEO of a growing business. The face of a product. A diligent son and responsible brother. Community leader.
He couldn’t be a marriage counsellor, too.
A part of him had wanted to be the glue that held them together. That had been a mistake. If the Dorans stuck around, it would be because of them, because they stuck to him, not the other way around.
Brent’s mouth fell to his neck, biting and sucking as they got off together.
Normally Evan liked to be the one doing the biting, but this felt right. “My nipples,” he gasped, and Brent lifted his hand, their cocks rubbing loose against each other now. He tweaked Evan’s nipple, then ducked and sucked it hard into his mouth.
Evan felt the pull of that in his balls.
Jesus Christ.
He ground his ass against the wall, then pumped his hips against Brent. He needed more.
And somehow Brent got that, his hands sweeping around to cup Ev’s ass, his fingers tracing his crease first, then burrowing in when Evan gasped. Yes.
They were wrapped tight around each other now, their cocks trapped as Brent found Ev’s hole and started to circle it. Anyone else, it would have felt like a fucking tease, but that little touch—constant, sweet pressure was all Evan needed.
His balls pulled tight, his vision went dark, and then his orgasm ripped from him, an otherworldly shattering that left him ragged and done.
So delightfully done.
He sank to his knees and gobbled up Brent’s cock, taking him deep just in time for the other man to spill his seed down Evan’s throat.
Fuck. Yes.
In the aftermath, he was crumbled on the tile floor. Brent heaved above him, leaning against the wall.
And the shower kept streaming over them.
“Does this thing ever get cold?” Brent asked.
“I’ve got a tankless system,” Evan gasped.
Brent grinned down at him. “Of course you do.”
Nothing but the best now. That was his rule.
Dragging in a deep breath, he hauled himself off the floor and grabbed some soap. They scrubbed up, then got out and racked out on Evan’s bed, Brent’s head on his belly.
He played with Brent’s hair. “I like it when you get rough. She was right, you know. We should spend time together. Just the two of us. It’s good for you.”
“She’s rarely wrong. But I like it when she’s here the best.”
Evan tried not to take that personally. “I think she wants you to be yourself, and I think the real you wants to spend a night being eye-fucked by another man.”
“Shut up.” But Brent blushed, and God damn it, that was hot.
Evan slinked his hips from side to side. “Maybe the next time I go to the city, you should come with me. I’ll introduce you to some of my friends. Take you dancing. Let you be eye-fucked by as many men as you like.”
“Fuck off.” This time it came out in a breathy, hungry plea.
Yes. That was definitely happening.
But before Evan could push it further, Brent reined it back in, and the moment was gone. “Want to watch something funny on TV until Jess gets back?”
25
Jess knew her rash plan to shove Brent and Evan together was…well, rash. Not completely thought through. But her gut said it was the right call.
Her gut was wrong.
It wasn’t obvious at first.
She went back to Evan’s place that night and everything seemed fine. She used being the designated driver as the excuse to not drink much, and then she drove everyone home. Evie first, then Karen Miller, the librarian, then Beth, and finally Carrie, who lived in the country on a farm.
“How was girls’ night?” Evan asked when she returned.
“Good.”
“Brent’s asleep.”
“Aww.” She went and peeked in on him, passed out in Evan’s bed. Their lover followed her, wrapping himself around her in the doorway to his room. “Are we all going to sleep together tonight?”
“One big cuddly pile,” he whispered. “Do you want to climb in with him now?”
“I’d share a glass of wine with you, if you want one? I didn’t drink tonight.”
“What kind of girls’ night is it without a bottle of wine?”
“I wanted to come back to you.”
He kissed her when she said that, and it was lovely and sweet.
But over wine, she let something slip that Evie had said, and Evan didn’t like it. “Apparently, a few years ago, Evie drunkenly shared the story of your threesome back in college. It came up again tonight, so I thought I would tell you.”
He swore under his breath.
“Evie shut down the conversation,” Jess hastened to add. “She said your life is private and none of our business. And she didn’t look at me when she said it or anything, so I think it’s no big deal, right?”
“She knows,” he growled. “I just talked to her about this today.”
“What?”
“Ty asked me about you. And Brent. I dunno, maybe he’s seen some touching, or looking—I honestly don’t know. I drew a hard line in the sand, said it was private.”
She blinked. It was, but…oh. “Okay.”
“And then he said I should go and talk to Evie if I wanted to shut down rumours. So I did, and she fucking promised—”
“She didn’t bring it up. Someone else did. And she shut it down, so I think she’s Team Evan, don’t worry.” She gentled her voice. “Remember, I’m on Team Evan, too.”
He still paced back and forth.
“Can I ask…is it really the end of the world if people knew we were dating?”
“Are we, though?”
“The tacos say yes.” Jess ignored the pain in her chest. “Maybe this isn’t the right time to be having this conversation.”
“No, maybe not.”
She leaned back against the couch and sipped her wine. “For what it’s worth, I think you’re a pretty decent guy to date. And if, at some point, you wanted to be my boyfriend, and go steady, that would be nifty.”
“Go steady?” He threw his head back and laughed, but it had a hard edge to it.
“Super nifty,” she repeated. “Swell, even.”
“I’m no Norman Rockwell painting, sweetheart.”
“I know. I’m not looking for that. I don’t think that was ever what I really wanted, Evan.”
“What do you want?”
“You. And Brent. And I don’t care what anyone thinks of that. I’m a poly kind of girl, it turns out.”
“Just like that.”
“Should it be an angsty decision? It feels right.”
“Wait until people are gossiping about you, then it may not.”
He was wrong. Jess had lived the other life for a long time. She wasn’t interested in going back to that. “I think this town might surprise you. And if they talk about you, it’s not necessarily gossip. Your friends love you, and as far as Evie is concerned—maybe it’s just that she’s getting too close to comfort on this topic. Maybe Evie saw that you were poly a long time ago, and simply named it.”
“How could she, when I didn’t see it in myself?”
“A question I’m asking myself daily at this point. Sometimes it’s just easier to see other people than to look at ourselves.”
He grimaced.
“Can we go to bed now?”
That got her a nod. And he held her all night long. But when she woke in the morning, he was gone.
At first she didn’t worry. They made coffee and waited, but he didn’t come back. She called his cell and there was no answer.
Brent wasn’t concerned, and she told herself that Evan just needed space
. He’d been rocked by the fire, and she’d blundered and brought up a relationship talk at the wrong time.
“What happened last night?” she asked Brent as he drove her back to her place.
“We fooled around.”
“Did you talk?”
He shrugged. “Sure.”
“About what?”
He pulled into her driveway. “I don’t know, Jess. Stuff. You. Me. Us. Him. Us. The usual.”
“Did he give you any reason to think he might disappear today?”
“No. We fooled around, then we crawled into his bed to watch a stand-up comedy thing. I fell asleep curled up against him. It was pretty damn normal.”
Brent didn’t know why Jess was worried. Evan came and went all the time, and maybe he’d told them he had a flight to catch and they’d forgotten.
God knew they’d all had a lot to deal with.
The driving back and forth was starting to wear on Brent, not that he’d admit it. He was exhausted.
Jess was trying to hold their little threesome together, and he knew he needed to help her more on that front, but he wasn’t a feelings guy. Not the same way her and Evan were. Brent knew what he wanted, and he was getting better at naming it, but he stumbled. He felt like a teenager all over again, worried that his feelings were too big or not big enough, never quite right.
She wanted to go over to the winery, but Brent talked her out of that. “You said it yourself. He wants what we have to be private.”
“Does he, though?” She shook her head. “I don’t know. Something isn’t right.”
He kissed her, wishing he could take away her worry. “He’ll show up. And then you can kick his ass.”
“I don’t think he wants me to,” she said quietly. Sadly.
The next day, Brent had to go back to work. It felt wrong leaving Jess, but she told him it was fine.
It wasn’t. By the time he got home, he knew he had to look into how often the Wardham and Essex fire departments had hiring campaigns.
He looked up their websites, put some dates in his phone calendar, then fired off a message to Evan.
Brent: Jess is worried about you, man. What’s with the disappearing act?
It took two days for Evan to reply.
Evan: I needed a breather.
Brent: Where’d you go?
Evan: Away.
That was it. No further explanation.
Not until later that night, when his phone lit up again, unexpectedly.
Evan: I’m sorry that I got in between you and Jess. I thought I could be an outside third to your relationship without hurting it, but I was wrong.
The pit of his stomach lurched. Slices of their lust-fuelled shower flashed through his mind. He’d said some dumb shit, and Evan had taken every single word literally.
Didn’t he know that Brent was struggling with all of this, including the right words to use? God damn it.
Fingers shaking, he called his wife. “Jess, I fucked up.”
Jess didn’t know where to go, where to look for Evan.
She was furious with Brent for not putting the pieces together sooner and yet she knew that anger was futile. She couldn’t change who either of them were, and she loved them anyway.
Brent got someone to take the rest of his shift, then drove straight to her, which mollified her somewhat. It was a horrible night out, an early summer storm raging over the lake, and the drive couldn’t have been good.
Even though it was late, as soon as Brent arrived, she insisted they go to Evan’s house. But of course it was dark. Wherever Evan was, it wasn’t here.
“We should have raised hell sooner,” Jess said, turning on Brent.
His cheeks stained dark red. “I’m sorry.”
“You knew he had doubts about us, and you blew them off.”
“We’ll fix this.”
She tried the door again, but it was no use. The house was definitely locked up tight.
In the next moment, she remembered a throwaway comment he’d made about the sliders. If she got inside, she might find a clue as to where he’d gone.
She turned and ran.
“Where are you going?” Brent hollered.
She didn’t answer.
It didn’t matter. He followed a split-second later, his footsteps faster than hers. Which meant they arrived on the back patio at the same time.
Instead of trying the door, though, all of her attention was fixed on the lakeshore, and the man silhouetted in the light of the early moon.
He was standing at the water’s edge, and as she stood a hundred yards away, frozen, he whipped something hard at the water. “You think that broke me, you fucker?” he yelled. His words were cut off by the crashing waves, the roaring wind, but she caught enough. “You want me? Fuck off, then.” It didn’t make sense at first. She didn’t know what she was watching. She knew the anger, of course. Felt it viscerally. He waded into the crashing, storming waves and her heart lodged in her throat. “Do your worst!”
Jess dashed across the rain-slicked lawn. Beside her, Brent cursed, then turned on the speed and sprinted past, flying into the water.
She skidded to a stop at the water’s edge, watching in horror as her husband caught her lover, as they fought—Evan pushing Brent, then Brent grabbing Evan’s arm, twisting him around. For a heart-stopping second, she was sure they were both going under the water, but then Brent turned around and shoved Evan in her direction.
He wasn’t just her lover. He was theirs. Their friend, their confidant, their heart.
And they’d broken his.
She was sobbing now, and her legs threatened to give out. Still he didn’t move. He just stood there, staring at her, as rain pelted all three of them.
And then, while they were transfixed, Brent charged from behind, catching Evan by surprise and lifting him—clumsily, but successfully—up and around his shoulders.
He staggered back to shore and dumped the larger man at her feet. “First of all,” he gasped. “I would like it noted for the record that I could take him after all. And second of all, I love the both of you and we’re all fucking insane.”
She dropped to her knees and clutched at Evan’s shirt. “Did you hear that?” she whispered. “He loves you.”
Evan grimaced and reached for her, pulling her in for a kiss.
“I’m sorry,” she said against his mouth. “I’m so, so sorry. We’re here. We’re not going anywhere.”
In the distance, thunder rumbled.
Brent hauled them both up and wrapped his arms around them, urging them toward the house. Evan jimmied the back door and they stepped into the cool darkness.
“I—” Evan looked around helplessly.
Jess felt a surge of protectiveness. “I’ll get towels.”
When she got back, they were hugging. Evan was holding on to Brent for dear life, even as he was gruffly telling him off. “You didn’t need to drop me like that. Or tackle me.”
“You weren’t fucking moving and I’m not prepared to lose you to a lightning strike on the lake.” As if to punctuate his point, the sky lit up with a sharp crack.
“I couldn’t move,” Evan said gruffly. “I wasn’t sure I wasn’t seeing things.”
“Even after I grabbed you?”
“You…no, I knew you were real. It was…”
Brent nodded. “I get it.”
“She loves fiercely, but she doesn’t forgive easy, you know?”
She. They were talking about her. Her voice cracked. “You didn’t think I would come find you?”
They turned around and, hands shaking, she gave them each one of Evan’s oversized bath sheets. Evan took it, but it fell to his side. “I didn’t give you any reason to.”
“You silly man. You—” She lost all words for a moment, overcome by emotion. But it wasn’t him that was silly. If he didn’t know, it was because she hadn’t shown him. “I love you so much. I will hunt you down to the ends of the earth if you hide from me.”
; “I got jealous,” he said roughly. “I was supposed to be the agent that brought you back together. I wasn’t supposed to be jealous of your love.”
“Oh, baby,” Jess whispered, wrapping herself around him. “We love you, too.”
Evan jerked in her arms.
“Is that so hard to hear?”
“It’s hard to believe.”
“We love you exactly as you are. We love how hard you work, how hard you play, and how big your heart is. And the rest…we’ll sort that out together. This is new for all of us.” She tugged at his soaking wet clothes. “Please take this stuff off. I need you to warm up.”
He let her baby him, get him out of his clothes and wrapped in the towel on the couch. Then she did the same for her husband. “Do you know how exhausting it is to love this guy?” She squeezed Brent. “I mean that in the best possible way.”
“I’m a lot.”
“You’re a mess,” she said gently. “And I’m happy to have someone beside us who gets that, and loves you because of it, not in spite of it.”
“We’re assuming he loves us back,” Brent said, his eyes dancing.
“Get over here,” Evan rumbled, and she was immediately sandwiched between her loves. Her lover behind her, her husband in front.
Evan reached around her and grabbed Brent tight, his hands squeezing her husband’s biceps hard. “I love you both so much it confuses me. So much it arouses me, and frustrates me, and fills me with an impossible amount of joy. I want to come home to you both. I want to walk into the kitchen while he’s fucking you, Jess. I want him to find us in the bathroom, my cock in your pretty little mouth.”
“We were talking about emotions,” she whispered, heat sweeping through her. “And you went and made it dirty.”
“The best emotions are the dirty ones,” Evan said. “You taught me that.”
“Oh. That’s right, I did.” She squirmed between them. “And what about when I come home, and I find you making out on the couch? Two big, strong men wrestling for control, clothes undone?”
